Episode 3 of Scarlet Hollow—the award winning narrative horror game—is set to release on Monday March 7th. The game is made by a full-time team of two developers. Ignatz-award winning graphic novelist Abby Howard (The Crossroads at Midnight, The Last Halloween, and Junior Scientist Power Hour) hand-draws all of the Scarlet Hollow’s art assets, while her spouse, Tony Howard-Arias, programs and designs the game. The two of them also co-write the story and script together.
They’re joined by composer Brandon Boone, sound designer Phil Michalski, and animator Lucia Retamales.
Scarlet Hollow follows a customizable protagonist as they return to their family’s impoverished coal town for the funeral of an estranged aunt they’ve never met. Very little in town is as it seems, and the player finds themselves embroiled in a race against time to uncover an inter-generational mystery before it’s too late.
The first two episodes of Scarlet Hollow are currently available on Steam and itch, where they’ve received over 98% positive reviews. They’ve also received critical recognition, including coverage on Kotaku’s best of year list, and winning Buried Treasure’s Game of the Year for 2021. For a full list of accolades, please see our press kit.
Episode 3 is a significant expansion of the game, with nearly 150,000 words of new content. A single play-through will likely take players 2-5 hours, and exploring all of the episode’s new content will likely take at least twice that amount of time.
Scarlet Hollow was originally funded on Kickstarter where it raised $81k with the support of 2,726 backers. Its success led to the game winning the Runner Up and Gamers’ Choice prizes from AT&T Unlocked Games.
If you would like a press key for Scarlet Hollow, or if you’d like unique quotes or assets for your covered, just respond to this email and we’d be more than happy to provide! We also have a Dropbox folder containing sprites, backgrounds, and screenshots for easy access here.
Likewise, if you’d be interested in providing release-day coverage of Episode 3, let us know and we should be able to provide an advance-copy roughly a week before release!